I disagree with the Democrat's agenda and have always voted Republican. I didn't really pay attention to politics until Bill Clinton became president. I was amazed that America would elect such a low-life as president and that's when I started paying attention.

Another thread got me thinking about how people and areas change political leanings.

My time on Google led me down a path of name calling so I thought I'd ask here. (we'll see if I should have tried Duck Duck Go instead lol).

As individuals I feel people are more likely to vote blue when they are young and red as they age.

As a whole we are more likely to vote blue when times turn bad and we look to regulate the markets.

So as a learning experience for all, what do you all feel drives a voter towards one party or the other?

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As data mining improves those old rules of thumb become less trustworthy.

A few things to keep in mind about the Blue states is that they urbanized way too early to be easily modernized. Astoria OR for example was captured by the Hudson Bay Company in the War of 1812 and the RN had to turf them out. Overcoming two centuries of aging infrastructure is rough. And as Miami demonstrates even only one century old infrastructure is enough to screw the pooch.

The huge debt load and out migration to reduce the tax base started going critical in the Ford administration with the NYC bail out. Now it is simply a matter of time until it all unravels. And Obama is the one to thank. He took the Dems ever further left while ignoring the destruction of the D bench. Without the SALT deduction the blue wall will become the new poverty belt.

As individuals I feel people are more likely to vote blue when they are young and red as they age.

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He who is not a républicain at twenty compels one to doubt the generosity of his heart; but he who, after thirty, persists, compels one to doubt the soundness of his mind.
-- Anselme Polycarpe Batbie, remarking upon the Burke Paradox​

Assuming one's principles allow one to, in voting, serve only self-interest, you and Claretie are likely quite accurate. It's not difficult to see why that is so. In one's youth, one has little to lose; thus exists little rational basis for eschewing risk taking, political or otherwise. The same is not so, assuming one was in their early career/life duly productive, later in one's life. If, on the other hand, one's principles bid one to consider the whole and one's self-interest as subordinate to it, the statement is likely not accurate.

Accordingly, it's no surprise that conservatives, regardless of age, ascribe to Republican (not républicain or republican) ideology. It abrogates charity and forebears all but the most egregious extremes of avaricious, gluttonous, apoplectic, and egoistic comportment, conjurations and conceptions. That said, Democratic ideology forebears all but the most egregious forms of sloth and tristitia.

I have no desire to align myself with any political organization that necessarily countenances any of those things, which I why I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I don't cotton to or waste my time engaging in the relativism that deigns to discern which be the better or worse set of opprobrious forbearances to accept. A little foul and very foul are both foul. That is how I construe the Republican and Democratic parties and the practice of voting based on party affiliation; they range variously between somewhat and very odious, and don't care to ever be part of something odious.

I am not a conservative. I am not a liberal. I have some views that are conservative, some views that are liberal and some that are neither liberal nor conservative. I am an individual.
-- Xelor​

Another thread got me thinking about how people and areas change political leanings.

My time on Google led me down a path of name calling so I thought I'd ask here. (we'll see if I should have tried Duck Duck Go instead lol).

As individuals I feel people are more likely to vote blue when they are young and red as they age.

As a whole we are more likely to vote blue when times turn bad and we look to regulate the markets.

So as a learning experience for all, what do you all feel drives a voter towards one party or the other?

Click to expand...

I think when times turn bad we become angry and scared and turn to whoever we think understands. Usually a populist like a Trump.

I don't doubt your take on aging but there is also the trend of urbanization. If you are rural, you don't see the need for gov't as much as city dwellers do. Rural folk see gov't taking their money and getting in their way so they want less of it. City folk see gov't keeping their trains running so they just want it to work well.

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